London (SatireWire.com) – The war for Afghanistan intensified today as rival factions from Reuters and the Associated Press launched vicious attacks against one another over whether the United States is fighting Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, or Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida network.

“For many months, Reuters has been reporting -and I use the term loosely – on this fictional entity called al Qaeda,” said Louis Boccardi, president and chief executive of the New York-based AP. “As our stories clearly illustrate, there is no al Qaeda, only al Qaida.”

“I can only assume incompetence is causing the AP to insist the U.S. is fighting the al Qaida because there is no al Qaida,” countered Tom Glocer, chief executive of London-based Reuters. “Even the U.S. government spells it al Qaeda.

“It wouldn’t be the first time your President couldn’t… no, too easy,” replied Glocer.

In a related development, Reuters officials admitted today that in a story published several days ago, an errant “i” landed in the middle of one of its al Qaedas. One reporter and two editors were seriously reprimanded in that incident.